Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

  Me and Carlo: BBFs (by Kirsty Rolfe) I’d like to introduce you to Carlo. Some of you may have met him before, but he’s one of the two heroes of Cage of Nightingales , the first of my Angelio novels, which is finally due to be published this year by Deep Hearts YA . Carlo is a castrato singer. When we first meet him, he’s thirteen years old, a student at the Conservatorio Archangeli, a prestigious music school in the city-state of Angelio. He’s talented, kind, loves beautiful things, hates arguments, can be flirty, and just wants a friend who sees him as more than a beautiful voice. And he’s canonically asexual and biromantic. Just thought I’d get that out there. Carlo is named after Carlo Broschi (aka Farinelli), the most famous of the castrato singers of the 18th century. I’ve written quite a bit about Farinelli and the other castrati on this blog, but as it’s LGBT+ History Month (in the UK at least) I thought I’d share with you a few facts about them. “Portrait Group: The Singe...

The world is going through very tough times at the moment and there's a lot to make us cry, but there are always things that bring us joy in the midst of despair. For me, one of those things has been the successful crowdfunding of Asexual Myths & Tales   (the follow-up to last year's Asexual Fairy Tales ) right in the middle of Pride Month.  So, what better time to share my top five asexual icons. Just to clarify, I don't mean by this that I necessarily believe all these people and characters are historically/canonically asexual, but that to me they symbolise something about my asexuality; they are somehow poster people for my identity.  The Virgin Mary "Pearls and Roses" by Anna Hopkinson Trust me, as a Christian with both Protestant and Catholic friends and relations, I've heard all the arguments back and forth about whether Mary really was a lifelong virgin. To me, it matters less from a theological point of view than it does from a personal viewpoint....

As part of my research for my ongoing work-in-progress, the Angelio  series, I have been reading Charles Burney's Life and Writings of Metastasio (1796).  Metastasio was a poet, a writer of librettos for opera during the 18th century, who spent much of his career at the Hapsburg court of Vienna.  He was also a lifelong friend of the castrato Farinelli (Carlo Broschi) to whom he wrote many letters. I couldn't help bring caught up short, though, by a couple of letters to a Signora Giacinta Betti Onofri, who was acquainted with Farinelli in Bologna.  According to Burney, "this lady...was a poetess, a musician, and an electrician." (Vol. 3, p. 57) An electrician!  I couldn't help picturing a lady in towering 18th-century headdress and blue overalls, knocking on the door and saying she'd come to fix the wiring!   Of course, what Dr Burney meant was something even more intriguing.  On p.60, he goes on to call her: "a smatterer in natural philosophy and elect...

         Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie" On 24 January 1705,  Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi was born in Apulia, Italy, into a noble family that had fallen on hard times.  Fifteen years later, on  31 December 1720,  Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart  was born in Rome, into the deposed royal family of Scotland, England and Ireland.  Since he grew up in Italy, he may well have been known to childhood friends as Carlo.   These two Carlos are better known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie and the castrato singer Farinelli.                    Carlo Broschi, "Farinelli" Both died in the 1780s, but who had the better life?  Charles Edward Stuart was fêted and adored as a child in Rome.  He had a successful military career, and believed in his destiny to reclaim his family's throne.  Carlo Broschi was castrated at ...

Well, sitting on a sofa, anyway.  Or a sopha, if you prefer. I simply had to share this portrait by the wonderful Kirsty Rolfe (@avoiding_bears) of the Divine Farinelli and I as BFFs.  (It even says so on our mugs.  I hope we're drinking mocha!)  Kirsty had the inspired idea to raise money for relief aid in Nepal by offering a portrait of yourself with your favourite historical character.  I think my selection was a no-brainer!   This is just a scan.  The real thing is on its way to me, in the post.  I can't wait! Thank you, Kirsty, for such a great idea, and for helping to raise funds and awareness at this difficult time for Nepal

Iestyn Davies as Farinelli, Globe Theatre, Brenner Photos. One of my most popular posts on this blog has been a short piece on the castrato Farinelli and the music therapy he undertook for Philippe V of Spain.  So what could be more exciting than a play entitled Farinelli and the King?   Taking place in a reconstructed 17th-century theatre?  Featuring arias that Farinelli himself sung?  Starring countertenor Iestyn Davies as the singing voice of Farinelli?  Human spontaneous combustion!! This is what I experienced last night at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (the new indoor addition to Shakespeare's Globe in London).  The play was written by Claire van Kampen, and also stars her husband, Mark "Wolf Hall" Rylance as King Philippe, Melody Grove as his Queen, and Sam Crane as the acted part of Farinelli.  (More on those two Farinellis later!)   So, where to begin?  Let's start with the magical space of the theatre itself.  I was dying to see t...

Well, it's 2015!  My Christmas decorations are coming down, which is very sad, but there are lots of things to look forward to in the new year.  Of course, no one can predict the future, but these are some of the arts and history things I'm looking forward to this year: 1. A glut of costume dramas exploding onto my TV as the new year kicks off.   The Musketeers, Grand Hotel, Foyle's War a nd Mr Selfridge , to name but four I know of. 2. Watching my two Christmas gift DVDs that I haven't yet seen: the new La Belle et la Bête and Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. 3. Going to the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse in London to see Farinelli and the King  in February.  Not only is the play about my all-time 18th-century icon and the subject of one of my most popular blogs, but it's in a theatre I've been dying to see, and stars Iestyn Davies, one of my favourite countertenor singers. 4. The Manga Jiman Competition exhibition at the Embassy of Japan.  My daughter is invo...

As I work on my current project, the Angelio Trilogy - about the friendship of castrato Carlo and bird-charmer Tammo in the fictitious city of Angelio - all sorts of interesting things come up in research.  This week, I've been writing a poem for use in book 2, and have turned for inspiration to the castrato poet, Filippo Balatri da Pisa (1676-1756).   As far as I know, Filippo is the only castrato who wrote about his feelings and experiences publicly.  He wrote a memoir in verse called Frutti del Mondo (The Fruit of the World) which tells of his travels as a singer, and some of his feelings about himself.  It is probably one of the best insights we have into how a castrato singer saw himself, his life and his fate. Here are some examples (in translation):- "I am young, Italian and castrated and seek my glory only through singing." "I was already made into a mixed gender, That is a soprano, and was quite young. I apply myself to singing in the most human style Doing ...

It's no secret that Carlo, the castrato singing prodigy in my current novel project  Cage of Nightingales , is named after the legendary Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, who was born today in 1705 in Andria, Italy.  Among his many accomplishments, Farinelli spent over 20 years at the court of King Philip V of Spain, having been invited by the Queen, who believed Farinelli's singing could cure her husband's mental illness. From my reading, I understand Farinelli to have been a kind, modest and generous man, who didn't let his international fame as a singer go to his head.  At Philip's court, he spent time every day singing to the king, playing the harpsichord, chatting to the king and praying with him.  Although it never completely cured the king's illness, it offered him a great deal of relief, and the royal family were extremely grateful. One can only contrast this with the treatment forced on George III of Great Britain later in the centu...